The movies listed here aren’t necessarily the year’s best, but they’re still great movies that never found an audience during their theatrical run for one reason or another. At least one of those reasons is you, but instead of berating you for failing to support the films while they were in theaters and needed your help, we’re hoping to point you in their direction now. (Which reminds me… go see Jack Reacher!)
But first, a few qualifications. I’ve excluded movies that played in fewer than 100 theaters since that’s the distributor’s fault. I’m not featuring films that made over $30m, and I’m not including subtitled foreign releases which the masses avoid by default. These are only films that had a real chance of making a lot more money, so while I wish more people saw the LCD Soundsystem concert doc Shut Up and Play the Hits, I’m not surprised that it only made $510k.
So here are 12 great movies that failed at the box office but deserved much better (and should be sought out immediately on Blu-ray/DVD, streaming, whatever)… and 6 terrible flicks that you were right to avoid.
Arbitrage ($7.901m)
Celeste and Jesse Forever ($3.095m)
Cloud Atlas ($26.682m)
Dredd ($13.415m)
Friends with Kids ($7.251m)
Goon ($4.169m)
Watch the trailer — Or Watch the Movie
The Perks of Being a Wallflower ($17.312m)
Safety Not Guaranteed ($4.010m)
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World ($7.079m)
Seven Psychopaths ($15.024m)
Sleepwalk with Me ($2.266m)
Watch Joss Whedon Suggest You Boycott It
Your Sister’s Sister ($1.597m)
Go find the films above as soon as possible to make things right again, but in the mean time pat yourself on the back for skipping these turkeys:
Alex Cross ($25.864m), The Apparition ($4.937m), Gone ($11.682m), One For the Money ($26.415m), The Raven ($16.008m), The Words ($11.495m)
And here are a few more amazing (limited release) movies from 2012 you might have missed…
